03/21/2019
Recently interviewed by an Assumption College student, New England Printing has quite an interesting history. Read on to find out what it has taken this small business to succeed for an upcoming 40 years in the seacoast.
As a way to gain a deeper knowledge of management in the business world, our group was educated by a working owner of a print shop called New England Printing. Throughout this semester, our class has learned useful strategies and tools in order to successfully run a business. With the project question to interview the owner of a company, our group set out to explore for a special business that could inspire us for the future. In our search, a member of our group came upon the print shop, New England Printing. Located in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, the print shop serves greater seacoast community, including as far as New York, Vermont, and Canada. The member of our group that knows the owner, Alan Higginbotham touched base with him and asked if we could have his permission to take a glimpse inside the makings and management of his company. Behind every business, there is a significance to those that run it, and to why the customers keep coming back.
New England Printing first opened in 1979 by Howard Higginbotham, Alan’s father, as part of a franchise. After Howard’s retirement, Alan made the decision to purchase the business from him financed over a period of months. The printing and copying store was first known as “Pip Printing.” Howard and Alan went to Los Angeles to meet with headquarters and receive the proper training to run the company. This meant that he was given the rules and regulations of the business. In addition to this, Howard, fortunately, received all the equipment and supplies needed to run his business. Mr. Higginbotham stated, “They sent us all the rules and regulations we needed to comply with. It was a turn-key operation. They sent all materials and machines- copier, printing press, folder, cutter, stitcher, and the inks. It was the very regulated “nitty gritty.” This is similar to the process the Dunkin’ Donuts Corporation goes through in helping the owners of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises set up their shops.
Currently, Alan Higginbotham is the sole owner, stockholder, and chief executive officer, meaning he makes all the decisions for his business. New England Printing is run in the structure of a Small Business Corporation. The text we used this semester gives this definition of a small business corporation, “A corporate form that is favored by many small businesses is the S corporation. An S corporation offers the limited liability of a corporation. All income is passed through to the owners based on their investment and is taxed on their individual tax returns” (pg. 110). The business is regarded as a small business corporation simply due to the one location that they have and the factor of liability. Because it is a small business, the owner and employees can foster customer loyalty. This is beneficial to their sales because when they have clients that are happy to make purchases, these clients often spread the word to their friends and families. New England Printing has seen positive results when their customers tell others about their business. Alan says that “customers are our first priority” directly in the company’s mission statement. This factor is a great indicator of the company’s workers having a sincere dedication to their job and making the clients top priority. Including Mr. Higginbotham, the print shop has four employees who each put in roughly 40 hours a week into the company. They work in the areas of production, graphic design, customer service, and management. When asked about employee issues, the owner stated, “You will automatically have struggles with your employees if you own a business; family issues also have the possibility to arise. Firing an employee is the least enjoyable part of my job, it is both a very time-consuming and emotional experience. When you fire a worker, you have to search for someone who is self-motivated, mature, and will benefit the company long-term.
The owner changed the name to “New England Printing” in order to send the message to clients outside of the Portsmouth/Seacoast areas that they were a great option for them as well. Also, that the print shop can deliver exceptional service to them, without being partial or geographically based. Mr. Higginbotham does have hopes for expanding his clientele, although he explained that it was not an absolute need as of right now, with the amount of business he receives.
In our interview, the owner wished not to share his gross or net revenue of the company. He shared that 90% of his customers are a combination of corporations and small to medium-sized companies. He said, “We sell their marketing materials, business cards, brochures, stationery, menus for restaurants, advertises, and invoices.” The other 10% are individuals with a one-time need (ex. Christmas cards.) Mr. Higginbotham explained that most of his customers call in to order their materials, while others place their orders by sending the company an email. However, he likes to have the customer come into the store to see an example of the product that they will be making for them. Mr. Higginbotham stated, “With coming into the store, we give our customers the hands-on approach, they can feel the paper in their hands, see the color of the paper in person. We actually request that they come in if they make an order through email or over the phone to demonstrate our exceptional interpersonal skills.”
The owner stated that the hardest part about running the company is the fact that it is an extremely deadline oriented business in which they need to stay on top of their projects. For example, if a theatre ordered playbills for an upcoming show, they would need to be delivered prior to the first showing of the production. Mr. Higginbotham said, “Time management in this business is very important. Just because we may be assigned a smaller project than we have handled, we do not take it any less seriously than we would a large project when it comes to time management.”
With almost 40 years of business, New England Printing has become one of the most successful print shops in the Seacoast region. Due to the owner’s father already having an established business to hand to his son, New England Printing, “(We) did not have the need for much marketing due to the advantage of already being an established company with trusted contacts and clients” said Alan Higginbotham. Although, with about four other printing companies in Portsmouth, New England Printing has had to compete for the same market for a number of years. The rivalry among businesses to sell their goods and services is known as competition. Competition encourages businesses to improve products, keep prices low, provide effective customer service, and improve business practices. What sets New England Printing apart from their competition is their variety of products, great customer service and affordable prices. Not only are they competing with other local shops the new interest in online printing has affected their sales in both a good and bad way. Online printing companies such as “Vistaprint”, “Kodak Moments,” “Uprinting”, and many more have been becoming more and more popular due to their convenience, price, and speed. New England Printing relies primarily on their good relationships with their customers to keep them coming back and for referrals. After all, the owner Alan Higginbotham says that the secret to staying in business is maintaining good relationships with the returning customers that you have and finding potential new clients.
In today’s world, the easiest ways to reach out to new customers and promote your business is on social media. “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (pg.232) New England Printing uses their website and Facebook to market their business. As well as, putting ads on the radio, word of mouth, and sending promotions through the mail to potential and existing clients. They have found that word of mouth has been the most successful way to promote their business to new customers and they will continue to use this method to grow the business.
In the attempt to grow the company, New England Printing also attends trade shows for printing which give them the opportunity to talk to other owners, showcase, and demonstrate their new products and services. The print shop is also apart of the Chamber of Commerce networking. Which allows them to further the interests of their small businesses in a local area. The Chamber of Commerce gives the business owner the opportunity to meet with other local business owners, network, and potentially gain new clients.
Alan Higginbotham grew up with parents who owned successful businesses and enjoyed the challenge of running and opening new businesses such as a gas station, fish market, a moving company, and the print shop that Alan would one day own himself. Alan stated that his parents were his inspiration and set a good example for him as to how to successfully run a company. He stated, “The example my parents gave to me, most definitely. They enjoyed the challenges of opening and running successful businesses. They loved taking on new tasks and staying busy. They had no meaningless hobbies or were involved in anything they did not enjoy. They loved to travel when they were not running their businesses. My father was a entrepreneur who owned various establishments including a gas station, a fish market, a moving company, and the printing shop. He borrowed money from his wife to buy Pip and eventually paid her back.”
Alan says that his company is in a good place right now but, of course, they can always improve. "Well, there is always room for improvement. I focus on maintaining the importance of teamwork and communication between myself and my employees, and my employees to my employees I have a production meeting every single morning we are open to communicate deadlines and review our active jobs.” In the future, Mr. Higginbotham has no clear exit plan set in place. He stated that at the age of 71, he stills enjoys the challenge of running a business and making the decisions for it. He is not looking to expand but desires to continue leasing their building space and building his clientele base.
For our improvement of New England Printing, we would would buy newer equipment and organize the working space of the employees and help them become less unorganized and improve their methods of storage. For there current method of keeping records, they keep a profile for every business and they give it its own box in the store which contains all the projects the print shop has ever done for said business. We would upgrade this method by going digital so this space in their office could be used for something else, or simply to seem less cluttered.
Works Cited
Burrow, Dlabay, Kleindl. Principles of Business.
Furlong, Joanna. “The Small Business Owner's Guide to Online Printing.” Business News Daily, 28 Aug. 2017, www.businessnewsdaily.com/41-online-business-printing.html.
Higginbotham, Alan, and Marianna Colantuono. “New England Printing: How is this Business Run?” 24 Nov. 2018.
“New England Printing.” Printing and Design Services for the Seacoast of New Hampshire, 2018, www.newenglandprinting.com/.
The benefits and what to watch out for when it comes to online printing for business uses.
